Green Room

Iran Has Been At War With Us For Years

The left is focused on the failure of the U.S. to stop Iraqi-on-Iraqi brutality and torture.

But there is a theme in the documents which has enormous implications not so much for the past, but for the future. Iran has been killing American soldiers for years in Iraq, both directly and through groups trained and deployed by Iran, as has Syria to a lesser degree.

As reported by The New York Times, one of the newspapers given prior access to the Wikileaks files:

Scores of documents made public by WikiLeaks, which has disclosed classified information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, provide a ground-level look — at least as seen by American units in the field and the United States’ military intelligence — at the shadow war between the United States and Iraqi militias backed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

During the administration of President George W. Bush, critics charged that the White House had exaggerated Iran’s role to deflect criticism of its handling of the war and build support for a tough policy toward Iran, including the possibility of military action.

But the field reports disclosed by WikiLeaks, which were never intended to be made public, underscore the seriousness with which Iran’s role has been seen by the American military. The political struggle between the United States and Iran to influence events in Iraq still continues as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has sought to assemble a coalition — that would include the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr — that will allow him to remain in power. But much of the American’s military concern has revolved around Iran’s role in arming and assisting Shiite militias.

Few in the media will choose to make the connection between the intra-Iraqi violence and Iran’s role, but there is a connection. Iraq without Iranian (and Syrian) meddling would not have devolved as it did.

If there was a clear failure of the Bush administration, it was the failure to deal with the Iranian and Syrian involvement in Iraq, under domestic Democratic Party pressure claiming that Bush officials were looking for a pretext to expand the war.

Our policy makers need to accept that the Iranian regime — much like al-Qaeda in the 1990s — declared war on us long before the American public knew it.

If anything good comes from the Wikileaks disclosure, it will be to pull the mask off of Iranian involvement in Iraq, how much the Iranians contributed to the deterioration of Iraq after the 2003 invasion (and yes, the intra-Iraqi violence), and the continuing Iranian war against us.

When are we going to stop kidding ourselves about Iran? The Iranian war against us cannot be swept under the rug anymore in light of Iran’s nuclear program.

Blowback

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Spot-on post. As one who has spent time in two Army hospitals (visiting an injured loved one) about three years back, I can tell you the awful affects of the EFPs on our boys in Iraq — sometimes the wounds are immediately recognizable (as being from an EFP) because of the burn marks they leave on the skin — the projectile is molten metal. The take-away for me is that — ever since Reagan left office, not a single President has had the cojones to face this issue or to deal appropriately with Syria (and its Hezbollah clients in Lebanon) or Iran. Yes, Bush-bots, my indictment includes him, most specifically of all, as he had the anger of the country behind him following 9-11, and he could have done something, but he wimped out vis-a-vis Iran, as did his father and Clinton before him, and as has Obama after him.

Notice how the NYT wording doesn’t acknowledge that Bush has been vindicated for his administration’s concern about Iran. It says instead that the US military had, and continues to have, concerns about Iran’s “role in arming and assisting Shiite militias.”

The NYT wording conveys an assumed neutrality about the topic, as if there is a better perspective than the military’s — with its direct access to local and national intelligence — on Iran’s role in fomenting the Shi’a insurgency in Iraq.

Since NYT was one of the chief “critics” cited as charging that Bush exaggerated Iran’s role, this is to be expected. But it leaves the door open for the Times to continue its career as a critic of any effort to get the word out on Iran’s terrorist/insurgent activism in Iraq.

While the U.S. stands holding its hands over its ears and screaming “LA LA LA LA,” the Islamo-nutballs have been waging Jihads and civil wars for the past 20 years. Lebanon used to a jewel on the Med. Now it is a client state for Iran and Syria. It must really suck to be a Christian in that once-beautiful nation.

At least for now, the really whacko Islamo-Fascists are just as happy to blow themselves up in order to kill other Muslims as they are to go after Americans or other coalition allies. Shiites blow up Sunnis and Sunnis blow up Shiites and if they can whack a Christian or a Buddhist in the process, they figure that it’s a that’s a bonus.

There is one thing you can count on, Iran will continue to fund the Taliban and Hizballah. Syria will make sure that the weapons keep flowing, and Pakistan will do everything it can to stay on the fringe.

Agreed, we never paid them back for that little stunt. And they did it again. Those 2 people they claim are spies were abducted in Iraq. This was also confirmed by the Wiki-leaks documents, and yet the silence from the POTUS is deafening.